Who will advance to the MLS Cup final?

By Sunday's end, the MLS playoff field will be narrowed down to two clubs.

No wild card teams remain in the postseason picture after the overall top seed Los Angeles Galaxy disposed of the New York Red Bulls Thursday night. As a result, the Galaxy and Real Salt Lake will renew their rivalry in the Western Conference final (9 p.m., ESPN), a rematch of the 2009 MLS Cup title game. The top-seeded Galaxy will host Sunday's match between two teams with plenty of history with each other and whose last meeting ended with David Beckham and RSL coach Jason Kreis getting into a postgame argument.

Over in the Eastern Conference, the top two seeds, Sporting Kansas City and the Houston Dynamo, held serve after their first-leg victories to advance to a conference final that pits two in-form teams against each other (5:30 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel). SKC hasn't lost in seven matches against MLS competition, while Houston hasn't lost in eight. The Dynamo's last loss was a 3-0 defeat at the hands of SKC on Sept. 10 at the scene of Sunday's final, Livestrong Sporting Park.

Which teams do you see winning those matchups and advancing to the MLS Cup final? Cast your vote after the jump:

30 Responses to Who will advance to the MLS Cup final?

these are 2 great games. really happy that for once mls doesn’t have some team that got on a lucky streak going to the conference finals. LA vs. RSL is a must watch game, really looking forward to it. i think the quality of play will be great. no hacks on those teams and it should be a good one.

KC vs. Houston will be a good match too. should be a great atmosphere in KC. i’d like to go to a match there.

glad NY lost last night. they are not fun to watch, and they need to make some big changes. they looked way better last year i think. they need to get rid of marquez, everyone who said his red card was the best thing he did all day last sunday was right. NY in the 1st half last night actually looked good. but they couldn’t sustain it and i’m glad LA won.

If you get Borchers and Olave back it will be a great game (most likely). However, the cards are stacked against RSL without those two. Seeing how LA came back against NYRB and how they lost against Dallas last year, its LA’s game to lose.

Trying to focus on positive indicators:
Shorter turnaround for LA.
The flight from SLC to LA is less than two hours I think so I don’t think travel fatigue will come into play for RSL.
Both starting CBs, potentially, have rested a whole game.
RSL looking to improve on their latest performance.
RSL wanting to re-play their last game vs. LA
Better pitch conditions/weather to suit their possession game…

I was speaking with my friend Gabriel Garcia Lorca and he like RSL too in this match. We’re members of a dead poets society.

Funny how LD was griping about RSLs extra day off but you’re right RSL has the travel to deal with which is not much but more importantly they have the away crowd too. I don’t really see any advantage for RSL here.

I disagree. with a healthy Brian Ching and an in form Brad Davis I think you’ll see a very attractive brand of soccer against KC. The defense will decide that matchup and right now I give a slight edge to Houston.

Won’t matter though cause this is LA’s year. provided that no one get’s hurt to the point of not playing this is LA’s to lose.

Glad I am not a NYRB fan, I would have wanted to break my TV watching ESPN broadcast…you would have thought commentators were official Galaxy reps, virtually all in-game analysis was from a Galaxy perspective.